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Jun 12, 2015Nursebob rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Languidly paced using a palette of dusty earth tones beneath sun-bleached skies, director Claire Denis takes what could have been just another political potboiler and turns it into a psychological battleground where the lines have been intentionally blurred thus rendering any moral criticisms purely arbitrary. Is Maria’s fierce determination a virtue or foolhardy craziness? Do the guerrillas have legitimate grievances or are their terror tactics merely self-serving? Indeed scenes of child soldiers scrambling for candy one moment only to wave machine guns at terrified civilians the next contrast sharply with government troops wearing the flag even as they systematically cut the throats of dissidents. Even the colonialist Vial clan is split with Maria’s ex-husband scheming his way to the border, her dying father refusing to leave the home in which he was born, and her indolent son avoiding any commitments until a harsh brush with reality sends him careening into the abyss. Although Denis doesn’t shy away from the bloodshed inherent in any armed conflict the war itself is mostly background noise meant to provide context for the sundry personal tragedies it engenders and it is this lack of onscreen testosterone, coupled with a low-keyed soundtrack of reggae tunes and electro beats, which makes it all the more unsettling. A small cinematic coup whether taken as an intense character study or a metaphor for an entire continent.